Download Parallels Desktop 5 for Mac

 
Parallels Desktop 5 for Mac is a virtualization software for the Mac OS X platform, which allows users to run other operating systems such as Windows or Linux on their Mac without having to dual boot. Now in its version 5, Parallels offers a lot more features and claims to offer improved performance than its previous versions. Let's see if it manages to do that.  
The installation process goes off smoothly and swiftly. Parallels asks you to enter your name and the license key for the OS (if applicable) and then does all the rest. On our MacBook Pro, Parallels took 23 minutes to install Windows 7 (this included starting the installation process to the time you first land up on the desktop). In comparison Fusion took 26 minutes to do the same. Both software restart the guest OS several times during the installation period (which has been taken into account in the timings). All the options that come up during a regular Windows installation such as name, password, etc. are taken care of by the application.

   


After starting, we were pleasantly surprised to see that Parallels has installed all the drivers for your Windows installation. Even things like the multi-touch trackpad worked perfectly on our MacBook Pro, with all the gestures like two finger scrolling and pinch to zoom working just like they would on the Mac. Even the Apple Remote works fine.